Interaction networks at an intra- and interregional scale are crucial aspects of global history since the earliest times. At an intraregional scale, networks arose from the exploitation of different ecological niches by the same or different human groups. At an interregional level, networks emerged from the search for new exploitable ecosystems under the pressure of environmental or demographic factors or, from a certain point, from the search for specific raw materials. In later phases, these processes, although not excluding the temporary or permanent migration of individuals or groups of different size and always affected by multi-scaled environmental dynamics, were increasingly related to the circulation of commodities.
The rise and development of the interaction networks are a very complex issue, and an ideal subject to be faced by means of advanced technological tools. This is the aim of this project.
The project will focus on some study areas: the Southern Atbai (Sudan), the foot of Middle Atlas (Morocco), the Djebel Ahdar (Libya), and the island of Cyprus. Their different setting is intended to provide a more extensive testing for the enhancement of the advanced analytical approaches and procedures adopted in the project.
These study areas already provided evidence of their involvement in intra- and interregional networks in different phases of their history, but the project will particularly focus on the 4th and the early 3rd millennium BCE, when the demand for raw materials and resources increased also due to the emergence of hierarchical societies. Of course, in the meantime networks were also affected by other factors, such as the global environmental dynamics characterizing the Holocene.
Archaeological research projects currently ongoing in the study areas. This makes suitable data sets available and easily accessible for analysis and will allow to collect the needed fresh evidence. Specific archaeometric methodologies, which were already adopted in the study areas, will be crucial in the project, as they will allow to trace movement of groups, individuals and resources at different scale. Paleoenvironmental reconstructions, already partially available for the study areas, will be enhanced to provide crucial contextual data for the analysis.
The analysis will be conducted by means of Network Analysis (NA) and Agent Based Modelling (ABM). These analytical procedures will be used both in a complementary perspective, to explore different aspects of the issue, in consideration of their intrinsic differences, and, when possible, to compare their results.
The results of the project will be twofold. On the one hand, they will consist in specific models of the rise and development of interaction networks in the study areas in the 4th-early 3rd millennium BCE. On the other hand, contributions to the theoretical and methodological debate on the analysis of complexity can be envisaged as a result of the project.